“Big Brother” in a Post-communist Era. A Radiography of the Protection of Private Life in an European Romania
“Big Brother” in a Post-communist Era. A Radiography of the Protection of Private Life in an European Romania

Summary/Abstract: Reducing privacy to an insignifiant value is one of the main faults of totalitarian regimes. It is maybe their most frustrating feature for the inner comfort of the individual who is being surveilled. The suspicion that his or her every move could be reported any time, registered and afterwards kept in a file to be judged by the arbitrary mechanisms of such a regime annihilates the manifestations of free will in all of its facets – freedom of speech, economical freedom, freedom to socially interact. The feeling of being constantly surveilled creates psychological discomfort and produces mutations in behavioral decisions. Maybe it is the annihilation of free will of the individual which decisively contributed to the fall of totalitarian regimes in the late ‘80s, as the individual desired to regain his or her privacy, to freely develop his or her personality, to fully enjoy his or her inherent liberties.

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